Hollywood Hunter

After eating something, Simon got up and began to socialize in the crowd.

Janet was not with Simon, and Sandra began to guest with his female companion very unkindly. Courtney knew that her relationship with Simon could not reach this level of closeness, and took the initiative to leave.

Sandra and Simon talked to Mike Medova, the president of Orion Pictures. The two of them walked over to the villa and asked, "When are you going to Australia?"

Simon raised a toast to a guest who was not too familiar, and did not stop, saying, "The day after tomorrow."

"The day after tomorrow?" Sandra was a little surprised: "So anxious?"

"It's not urgent, it's already arranged," Simon looked at Sandra's unexpected look and said, "I'll probably stay in Melbourne for more than three months. If you have time, you can come to the class."

Sandra looked around and pretended to be worried: "Australia is Jenny's base camp. Her family still mines. Will I be caught and filled in the mine when I go?"

Simon nodded heavily, "very likely."

Sandra was dissatisfied with Simon's appearance and said, "Do you care?"

Simon's mouth is smiling, but his tone is very embarrassing: "It's not easy to control, she has many mines, and some are still in Africa."

Sandra rolled her eyes: "Asshole."

With that in mind, Simon came to Wes Craven, the director of "Scream", and started talking.

Although the two sides had some friction in the director's remuneration of "The Scream", but after some consideration, Wes Craven accepted the packaged remuneration of $15 million for the two sequels of Daenerys Entertainment.

Obviously, Wes Craven was not overwhelmed by the success of "Scream", repeating his mistakes withdrawing from the "Ghost Street" series.The director's remuneration for the two sequels of $15 million is hard to achieve even higher for horror films.

Everyone talked a few words, Simon took Sandra and was about to move forward. Some time ago, Nancy Brill, the president of the consumer products department who just joined Daenerys Entertainment, took a mid-five with a figure who was somewhat blessed. The young man came over.

"Nancy, you are so beautiful tonight," Simon and Nancy Brill shook hands and looked at the middle-aged man curiously, waiting for Nancy's initiative to explain.

Nancy Brill smiled, shook hands with Simon, and greeted Sandra before saying: "Simon, this is Mr. Wayne Huyzanga, he is the chairman of the company."

Simon originally thought that this middle-aged man was Nancy Brill's husband. He secretly sighed a flower inserted in cow dung. After listening to Nancy's introduction, he realized that he had misunderstood.

After discussing the possibility of getting involved in the video chain business at the last meeting, Nancy has been collecting relevant information while taking into consideration the Daenerys Entertainment Consumer Products Division.It can be seen that this woman is not willing to control only one consumer goods department.

Simon actually likes ambitious women, especially beautiful women with ambitions.Of course, the premise is that they need to have the ability to match it.Although his understanding of Nancy is not too deep, Simon can basically determine that this is a woman with very good abilities.

Thinking so, Simon did not hesitate,

"Hello, Simon, in fact, the surname Westero is really unique," Wayne Huyzanga shook hands with Simon with a smile, and then obviously added deliberately: "Our family is a Nordic immigrant. , Huy Zanga is a Dutch surname."

Simon suddenly said, "The Nordic surnames, I know some of them, seem to be quite chatty."

In a small chat with Wayne Huyzanga, Simon's mind also reveals the details of the company.

The company was founded in 1985 by a Texas software engineer named David Cook, but after only operating for more than a year, David Cook changed hands and quit the company.

Wayne Huyzanga, who runs the garbage transportation business, discovered the company, bought Blockbuster with several other partners, and began spending a lot of money to expand it early this year.In just one year, Blockbuster has grown from dozens of chain stores to Simon’s 386 recently seen data, growing almost at the rate of one per day.

In this era, the cost of investing in a video rental store is about 500,000 US dollars, which is regarded as other expenses. Only in this year, Wayne Huyzanga and several of his partners have invested nearly 200 million US dollars. Funds.

However, from the revenue data of the previous quarters, in 1988, Blockbuster's total turnover was only about 130 million US dollars, because of the continuous large investment, the annual financial report is naturally loss-making.

Wayne Huyzanga was also started from scratch. He has been in business for more than 20 years, and his personal assets are less than 300 million US dollars. Naturally, he can no longer continue to support this high-speed expansion of Blockbuster, even with several others. The partners shared the investment, and Blockbuster has accumulated up to $80 million in debt over the past year.

At present, the North American stock market has not completely recovered, and Blockbuster is not suitable for financing through listing. If you want to continue the current expansion frequency, Wayne Huyzanga can only seek other investors to buy shares.

In my memory, Blockbuster was acquired by Viacom with a huge investment of more than 8 billion US dollars five years later. Even if the current Blockbuster valuation is higher, it will not exceed 3 in terms of its various conditions. It also has less than 5% of the North American video chain market..

Therefore, although Simon has always been very concerned about the video chain business, it is definitely the best time to enter the Blockbuster at this time, and it can certainly bring a very generous return.

Because it was a fun New Year's Eve reception, Simon did not discuss too formal issues with Wayne Huyzanga.With an appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning, Wayne Huyzanga left on his own initiative.

Simon looked at Wayne Huyzanga's figure and walked away, looking at Nancy and saying, "How are you talking?"

The day after tomorrow, he will leave for Australia. Simon has no time to see Wayne Huyzangala.The meeting tomorrow will basically determine whether the two sides can reach cooperation.Prior to this, Simon had instructed Nancy and Wayne Huyzanga to consult.

Nancy Brill said: "He initially hoped to be able to exchange $100 million in investment from Daenerys Entertainment by transferring 30% of Blockbuster. I talked about 35%, $120 million. Simon, we are not The only company interested in investing in Blockbuster, Somer Redstone’s Viacom Group has also been in contact with Wayne Huyzanga."

Simon thought for a while and said: "120 million US dollars should not be enough for BesTV to expand next year?"

Blockbuster has already invested 200 million US dollars this year. According to the growth rate of one store per day, the number of stores at the end of next year is estimated to reach 800. Even if the company's own income will offset part of the funding pressure, it will be invested next year. Should not be less than 200 million US dollars.

Nancy shook her head and explained: "It's not enough, but the transfer of 35% of the shares is already the acceptable limit for Wayne Huyzanga and others. They don't want to lose control of this company. Viacom Just hoping to get more shares, the two parties failed to negotiate. As for the remaining funds, Blockbuster should be resolved through loans. If necessary, they may introduce other investors or conduct an IPO in advance."

Simon also nodded slightly.

If Daenerys Entertainment is now in desperate need of funds, even if it owns 100% of the shares in this factory, Simon's share of the shares that he is willing to transfer at most is only about 35%.

Wayne Huyzanga, together with other partners, owns the company, Blockbuster. No one originally held more than 30% of the shares. Daenerys Entertainment took 35% of the company’s shares for $120 million. , Should already be the largest shareholder of this company.

It is conceivable that in the talks tomorrow, Wayne Huyzanga will definitely propose that Daenerys Entertainment should not interfere excessively as a major shareholder in the operation of Blockbuster.

However, if he can't intervene in BesTV's operations, Simon has little confidence in the company's further development.

David Cook previously created Blockbuster, but to a certain extent imitated Walmart's warehouse logistics and information co-ordination system. This management and operation model was very successful in the first few years of Blockbuster's expansion, but the video rental sale The development and change of the industry is much faster than that of a super mall. In the 1990s, BesTV's business strategy at this time will soon appear out of date.

In memory, the important inflection point of the development of Blockbuster was acquired by Viacom five years later.

After that, under the control of Summer Redstone, who had no enough energy to take care of the Viacom business empire, although the scale was still expanding, it was actually going downhill, just like the entire The situation with Viacom Group is the same.

Although Blockbuster still existed until Simon's rebirth, compared with its latecomer Netfix, the two are completely different.

To avoid repeating the same mistakes, BesTV must adjust its development strategy at any time in the development process of the next few years.Simon has no confidence in Wayne Huyzanga’s ability.Therefore, if Simon wants to get involved in the video chain business for a long time, it is obviously the best choice to grab the control of Blockbuster.

However, this matter is actually not in a hurry.

It is the most important to get a 35% stake in Blockbuster first. As long as Daenerys Entertainment ensures that this share will not be diluted in the next few years, Simon will have enough chips to win Blockbuster when necessary. Control.

Simon was talking to Nancy in a whisper, and a hearty greeting sounded beside him.

Turning around to see Robert Redford, Simon smiled on his face and said, "Bob, I'm so glad you came over tonight. How are you doing?"

"Very good, Simon," Robert Redford and Simon shook hands and said, "I've seen the "Metropolis", a very thoughtful movie."

Simon smiled. Although Sundance accepted only Daenerys entertainment this year, he had no complaints about Redford. Everyone was in the circle. Redford is one of the most important stars of CAA. He Nor can it be completely unaffected by the people around them.

Moreover, after all, this Hollywood big man helped him a lot. Except that "Laura Run" unexpectedly pushed the Sundance Film Festival into the development fast track, Simon himself did not pay back the other party. After careful calculation, he actually has always been Some owes to Redford.

The two had a casual chat about the current situation, and Redford condensed some expressions and lowered his voice slightly: "Simon, there is one more thing. Michael hopes to talk to you in person. Are you free tomorrow?"

Michael in Radford's mouth is naturally CAA President Michael Ovitz.

During the recent period, the box office of "Rainman" was unexpectedly red, and CAA's situation in this storm was very embarrassing.Moreover, CAA should have felt that Daenerys Entertainment has completely blocked its artists.

Other than that, just tonight's reception, except for the few people who have worked with Redford, etc., Daenerys Entertainment did not invite other obvious CAA. The party's big crowds are basically WMA and ICM. The company's obvious.

In fact, Daenerys Entertainment and CAA have not publicly torn their faces, and the few meetings between Simon and Ovitz can even be said to be pleasant. However, after a series of entanglements in "Rainman", the huge crack between the two sides was almost Well known.

Ovitz asked Redford to help with the conversation this time, probably considering that his personal contact with him might be rejected by Simon.If Orwitz was able to dissuade Barry Levinson and others from seeing through the face, if CAA did not do those small actions privately before the release of "Rainman", if CAA did not ask for prices on Meg Ryan’s issue, both parties There may be some room for improvement.

Now, Simon does reject each other, he feels that he and Owitz have nothing to talk about.

As for how this would completely overthrow CAA, Simon didn't care too much.The nature of the talent agency itself has determined its dependence on Hollywood producers, not its dominant position.In all fairness, because CAA has continued to significantly increase the budget costs of film and television projects in the studio in recent years, even without this incident, Daenerys Entertainment and CAA are destined to go against each other because of conflicts of interest.

Although the friendship with Redford was good, Simon could not agree to his matchmaking without principle, so he shook his head regretfully: "I'm sorry, Bob, my schedule for tomorrow is already full."

Radford did not give up, saying: "Simon, it's just a movie, not to mention that Daenerys Entertainment has succeeded, you don't have to do this."

Because of his alienation from the world in his bones, Simon rarely seldom moved too much, but at the same time, he was never a forgiving person.A person's various black fists in the back almost hit the other person to vomit blood. Afterwards, they wanted to get reconciliation after saying, "You don't have to do this." How is this possible?

Shaking his head again, Simon smiled and shifted the subject: "Bob, what are you going to make in the next movie, but I look forward to it?"

Robert Redford saw himself turning around with no results, and could only sigh in his heart.Although he has some friendships with Simon, he doesn't think he can affect this young man too much because of Simon's present status.Now that the message has been delivered, Redford has not wasted his tongue.